LONDON: A key border crossing between northern Lebanon and Syria reopened on Monday after two years closed, restoring a vital trade and travel route that officials said could eventually handle up to 10,000 travelers a day. The Abboudieh-Dabbousieh crossing, linking the Akkar region of Lebanon with Homs province in Syria, had been closed since it was damaged by an Israeli airstrike in November 2024 during the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Passenger and commercial traffic has now resumed following extensive repairs, including reconstruction of the bridge connecting the two countries, said Mazen Alloush, director of relations and international cooperation at Syria’s General Authority of Borders and Customs. Speaking on Tuesday, Alloush said the crossing will be able to accommodate between 8,000 and 10,000 travelers and 150 to 250 freight trucks each day when fully operational, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported. The reopening was expected to ease pressure on the Masnaa Border Crossing in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley, known as Jdeidet Yabous on the Syrian side. It has handled most of the land traffic between the countries while the two crossings to the north, Abboudieh-Dabbousieh and Arida, have been closed. Arida, which connects Lebanon’s Akkar with Syria’s coastal Tartous province, is expected to reopen in December after rehabilitation work. The reopened Abboudieh-Dabbousieh crossing offers businesses in northern Lebanon, an area long dogged by underinvestment, the prospect of renewed trade as it restores a direct link between the region, including the Port of Tripoli, and Syrian industrial facilities in Hassia and the Port of Tartous. It comes as the countries seek to reset a relationship shaped by decades of Syrian intervention in Lebanon. Syrian troops entered the country in 1976 and remained there until 2005, a period during which the Assad regime in Syria was accused of involvement in political assassinations. When Israeli attacks damaged the crossing in November 2024, Bashar Assad, a key Hezbollah ally, was still the president of Syria, and border routes served as conduits for weapons bound for the group in Lebanon. Assad fled to Russia the following month as a rebel offensive swept through Damascus, and the new authorities in Syria have sought closer ties with Lebanon.